Heart of the Free Wielder(Key Paladin Path)
by warrior of six blades
Summary: Matthew use to wonder why he had no memory of his life before waking up on Destiny Islands. After years of never remembering, he simply wished to become stronger to protect those he cared for. Little did Matthew expect to become part of a prophecy to save other worlds, especially a "World of El"... OC x Elesis, Seris x Raven, and (Eventual Riku) x OC x Rena.
1. Prologue

**Heart of the Free Wielder**

 **By: warrior of six blades**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC, Matthew. So don't even try to sue me you bastards. I got enough money problems as it is.**

 **Beta: AngelofFluffiness**

 **AN: I dedicate this story, not chapter, but the story itself to my feelings for Elly and my prayer for us both.**

AN: Also, IF anyone has problems with OC stories or with OC's falling in love with characters from a series, I suggest you leave now because this story has both and I got no time to waste on haters. That said, for those who are more accepting, please read, enjoy, and review!

"Speaking."  
 _'Thinking.'_

 **Prologue: Awakening**

A boy opens his eyes to reveal bright blue irises with golden flecks near the pupil. He sees he is falling or... sinking underwater? The boy is a young teenager with a peach skin tone who has brown hair that goes down to his neck, with a grey stripe on the front of it going down the middle. He wears a blue t-shirt with gray sleeves and collar. Along with that, he wears blue pants, plus black and silver sneakers with white laces.

This boy is Matthew, he isn't sure if he is dreaming or in a new place entirely.

Soon he finds himself landing softly on solid black ground. Only birds shot up from the ground as he took a step, the birds simply flying past the boy and out of sight, while the ground itself seems to be glowing. Matthew now notices the ground he is standing on turns out to be a giant stained glass circle. On the stained glass circle is a picture of a sleeping young woman on it. The woman has white skin, purple hair done in pigtails held by a purple and white is wearing a white and pinkish-purple dress with a white overcoat layer. Sleeveless but collared, the overcoat bears a gold star broach and a purple ribbon at the throat of the collar. Finishing her outfit are knee high purple socks with pink diamond symbols on the sides and white dress shoes that have a gold star on them. The background shows a green field with a starry night sky above and around the girl, with a crescent moon hanging above the girl's head.

Around her, rather close to her, appear to be three smaller circles with people's faces on them. The first one to the upper left is a boy with peach skin, spiky red hair, and red eyes. He is wearing a red shirt with a red and white jacket. The boy has a confident grin on his face like he is ready to take on anything.

The one on the upper right is a young woman with white skin, green eyes, and pointy ears. She is wearing a sleeveless shirt that is blue at the top. The woman has a friendly smile on her face that can make one feel safe or at ease.

The next on the lower right was either a boy or a girl, Matthew couldn't tell. Having white skin, blue eyes, and short blond hair with brown tips on some strands of hair. They are wearing massive amounts of blue and white armor. The boy or girl has a small gentle smile.

 **So much to do, so little time.**

Startled out of his observation of the beautifully done stained glass, the boy began looking around for the source of the voice. However, he couldn't tell where it came from since all he can see around him is just black all around the outside of the platform...

 **Take your time. Don't be afraid.**

A light shines down on the center of the platform from above after the voice tells him this.

 **The Door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?**

The voice asks Matthew this as he looks at the light confused for a second. Eventually he finds himself shrugging, not seeing the harm in this, before following the simple instruction. The boy steps toward the light that shines from above to the center of the platform. He is not sure what is going on, but he hopes to find out soon. Only once he gets to the center of the platform and under the light, does the voice speak up again.

 **Power sleeps within you...**

So says the voice as a stone trapezoid rises from the ground. When the stone stops rising, a staff appears on top of it, simply hovering over the stone under some power he cannot see.

 **If you give it form...**

Another stone trapezoid rises as well, this time a sword appears to begin hovering on top of it.

 **It will give you strength.**

A third and final stone trapezoid rises from the stained glass. This time a shield appears, hovering on top of it like the two previous stones before it.

 **Choose well.**

The voice says this as the boy looks at the three pillars carefully. Not sure what to think from what he's seeing, he mentally decides it _might_ be a else can he explain stone trapezoids rising from a stained glass floor with weapons hovering over them?

Well, that or it's magic... Figuring that as a safe assumption for now, he decides to go along with the voice for now and see if this is a dream or that in mind, he goes to check the sword first. He jumps onto the stone and holds it in his hand to examine it. Finding it to be a double edged sword with a mouse head shaped symbol on the hilt of the blade, he feels a surge of confidence and power flow into him as he holds it. With a feeling that he could fight off any threat that comes his way, he soon hears the voice again.

 **The power of the Warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. Is this the power you seek?**

The voice asks as Matthew then feels conflicted. On one hand he thinks this blade is something he can get use to wielding, but the terrible destruction part of it concerns him. What does it mean by terrible destruction? Would this power hurt him or someone he cared for? He decides to check out the other weapons first and choose after he sees them all. So, jumping off of the stone, he walks to the shield next and jumps up to it. He holds the shield, feeling a warm and protective sensation flow through him. It makes him feel a strong desire to help and protect those around him. Matthew also gathers a feeling he can possibly take any attack and still be able to fight on.

 **The power of the Guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?**

The voice speaks as Matthew is now seriously tempted to accept it. This sounds more like a power he honestly wants, but he decides to see what the staff holds first. So he jumps off the pillar and runs up to the other side of the platform where the pillar holding the staff is. He jumps up onto it and holds the staff in his hands. Yet again, a feeling surges into him, only this time he feels like this staff can help him do things beyond his imagination. A strong feeling also develops deep within himself, a feeling that is hard to describe for him...

 **The power of the Mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. Is this the power you seek?**

The voiced asks Matthew again and he jumps off the pillar to think of his choice. Now he istrying to figure out what it means this time. Power of the Mystic? What does that mean? Staff of wonder and ruin, he figures, has something to do with how he uses it or something like that. Inner strength though, is something he really struggles to understand the most, as he usually thinks courage is inner strength, but the sword already has that. So if courage isn't inner strength, then what is? He thinks hard on it and tries to consider the feeling the staff gave him as he held it. A feeling that made him feel strong, but in a different way from the sword. Like... he wouldn't give up or never backing down. Finally makingup his mind, he approached the shield once more and held it in his hand again.

 **The power of the Guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek.**

Once more the voice asks him the question again, before Matthew nods in response to the question. His mind fully made up on his choice.

"I do," The boy speaks softly, but sincerely determined about his choice.

Watching the shield disappear, he jumps down from the pillar to face the two remaining choices. He is about to ask what next, but the voice beats him to it with its next instruction.

 **Now, choose which power to give up.**

The voice continues now, shocking Matthew. He looks between the sword and the staff, mentally trying to decide which one he wants to give up. He begins to feel frustrated with the fact that both feel equally important to him, seeing that one can't be brave without courage, but inner strength sounds really useful too. Like he will not give up or maybe some inner power he doesn't understand maybe? He doesn't know which was more important and was thankful the voice was quiet, so he could think in peace.

 _'Which is more important to me? Invincible courage or inner strength?'_ the boy thought, looking at both the sword and staff on their separate pillars.

Finally taking a deep breath, the boy makes his way to the sword and picks it up.

 **The power of the Warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction. You give up this power?**

The boy thinks hard on it before nodding in response.

"I do," Matthew confirms once more as the sword vanishes, as much as he prefers sword combat. He feels like the inner strength might be what he needs to protect his friends. Besides, that feeling of never backing down is something he swears feels familiar to him and is something he may need. So he decides to keep it and hope he is right, though he does wish he could have kept the sword as his weapon of choice.

 **Crack...**

 _'What the?'_ the boy wonders, breaking out of his thoughts.

He is then surprised to see the glass platform with the picture of the girl breaking to pieces rapidly all around him. The whole floor he is standing on shatters before he can say, think, or do anything. Yelling in shock and surprise as he falls into the dark, only to see a new platform he is falling toward.

 _'Oh_ _no_ _...'_ Matthew thinks, worried that he will slam into it, before unexpectedly slowing down.

Surprised again by this change of events, he takes the few seconds to admire the platform he is about to land on. This platform showed that young woman with white skin, long blond hair and pointy ears from the smaller circle before. This time however, he cannot see her eyes because she is sleeping this time. She is wearing a sleeveless dress that is mainly green, but has blue on the sides and it she wears a brown belt that has silver pieces around her waist loosely. The outfit is complete by white thigh socks with blue at the top that have a strange symbol on them, as well as gray metal short-heel boots. In the background is a large dense forest and a small green crystal in the distance attached to a lone tree on a hill.

Just like the purple haired girl he saw on the last platform, the blonde haired lady has three circles around her too. To her upper right is the red haired boy with red eyes still giving his confident grin. To the upper left is the purple haired girl with pigtails, but her eyes are opened to reveal her purple eyes with a smile on her face. A little over the blond lady's head was the final circle. Even now Matthew couldn't tell if he was looking at a boy or girl on the circle. With white skin, blue eyes, blonde hair with bits of brown near the tip on some of his or her hair, the appearance is very androgynous. They are once again wearing the white and blue armor with a small smile.

As he lands light as a feather, he looks around wondering what is gonna happen next. Only to see a flash of light on his right hand before the shield appears for him to firmly hold in his right hand as the voice makes its presence known once more.

 **You've gained the power to fight.**

Matthew begins searching for the voice as he listens, only to unknowingly pout at not seeing the speaker anywhere. Why is the voice's source hiding from him in the dark? Not seeing anything to do, the boy takes a few test swings holding the shield by the handle. Trying to get use to using it, though finding it quite awkward to use, as he has little idea how to fight with a shield. Mentally noting the bottom looked like a sharp, but blunt point, he swings it down, before quickly doing a punch with it. Then swings it to the side as he spins in a circle. After doing that, he held the shield by both hands on the outside edges and slammed down, like he was using a steel chair.

 **All right! You've got it.**

The voice calls out again, surprising the boy and making him jump slightly. He composes himself, before he holds the shield properly by the handle again.

 **Use this power to protect yourself and others.**

The voice tells him this and Matthew nods, actually feeling serious at this. Protecting others is what he has wanted to do for a long while sure sounds like this power could help him do just that. Feeling something...weird, and dangerous to his right, the boy looks in the direction he felt the weird and dangerous feeling coming from. Immediately he sees a shadow appear on the ground not far from his right, but this shadow isn't connected to him... And it is moving,...?

 _'What is that?' he wonders to himself._

 **There will be times you have to fight.**

The voice speaks to the boy again, making the boy tense at those words. Matthew watches, partly amazed and shocked, to see the shadow rising from the stained glass floor. This eventually reveals a creature that has an all black body with yellow eyes that seem to glow and a little antenna on its head. It has claws for hands that have three sharp fingers moving about strangely, twitching and swaying a bit. It is almost as tall as he is too.

 **Keep your light burning strong.**

The voice continues to speak as more Shadows, as he dubs them mentally, arise from the ground as well. This begins making the boy nervous because he isn't used to fighting with a shield at all, let alone against actual enemies.

' _I should have picked the sword first..._ ' Matthew thinks to himself, a little worried.

However, he gathers his courage, holding his shield tight. One of them jumps toward him with its claws ready to tear into him. The boy's eyes widen as he quickly rushes out of the way. That thing actually jumped as high as he normally does, despite being just a little shorter then himself. Matthew doesn't have much time to think as they tried to gang up on him, so he dodges three of them jumping for him. He begins leading them on a little chase, as Matthew looks up to ask the voice for a favor.

"Hey! Mr. or Ms. Voice! Can I get the sword or staff from earlier to fight these guys? I never chose the staff for either choice. So can I have that at least?" Matthew asks, with a youthful restrained voice like he is normally short on words.

Still, these creatures aren't slowing down or showing any sign in stopping their chase. So after a few seconds of running around and not getting an answer from the voice, Matthew figures the voice isn't going to give him the sword or boy quickly sees that the shadow monsters are trying to gang up on him again. Swinging the sharp point of the shield down on top of the closest Shadow's head making it flinch from the pain, Matthew spots a chance to take control of the fight. As he quickly punches it back with the shield, swinging his shield to the side using both hands for added power, four heartless vanish in black smoke. Green orbs drop to the ground where the Shadows were before as the remaining heartless quickly vanish back into the ground.

This is much to Matthew's relief, as he guesses they knew he was too dangerous to mess with. Hopefully, anyway... What the boy doesn't notice was a shadow appear again nearby, before quickly making its way behind him and rising from the ground ready to strike. He notices that weird and dangerous feeling again, only to be confused when he sees nothing nearby. Yet he knows the feeling is closer now...

 **Behind you!**

The voice warns Matthew as he looks behind him, only to jump to the side as the shadow creature tries to attack him. The boy then holds his shield by both hands on the edges and bashes it over the creature's head repeatedly. It takes three hits before the creature vanishes in some black smoke, just like the other four he hit earlier. He has little time to think of it, before he notices more rushing him from the corner of his eye. Taking the shield in his hand by the handle again, he tries to get used to punching and swinging it by the handle. Soon he takes out one heartless with little trouble, but hisses in pain when a Shadow scratches him on his left arm making it bleed from the fresh wound. On reflex he swings the shield to his left, trying to ignore the pain in his left arm, as he hit the creature. Knocking it back on the ground, he proceeds to take the shield with both hands on the edges again and bash its body twice, finally making it vanish.

"Agh!" The boy cries out in pain from feeling two claws scratch the back of his right leg, while another got his right arm this time.

He jumps to the left and briefly examines his wounds, only to feel shock at the sight of his blood coming from his wounds. He is surprised at this, how could he be bleeding if this is a dream? Is this even a dream at all? Those thoughts are quickly replaced with anger toward the little monsters. Grabbing the shield by the handle, he hit both with a punch to one and a downward slam to stun the other, before swinging it sideways with both hands to get rid of them both. Watching as green orbs drop again and one close by flies into him, he tilts his head in surprise. A small, soothing feeling flows through him as the wound on his left arm heals a little, making it no more then a small scratch on his arm, compared to the semi deep claw like wound before. Though he is still bleeding as he tries to collect the rest, but they vanish before he can reach anymore.

Unfortunately Matthew gets absolutely no time to think about it as one heartless sinks into the glass platform, making a black spot slowly grow in size.

 _'What the-?'_ Matthew thinks to himself before his thoughts are again cut off.

As more black spots appear and grow large enough to cover the whole platform's picture in black and purple substance, Matthew feels his legs sink into the shadows. Struggling to try and free himself, he begins reaching out for someone to help as the shadows pull him inside quickly. His body briefly feels that dangerous feeling as everything goes black, like being lost in darkness with no light.

 _He_ _doesn't_ _like it._

So he tries to struggle out of it, moving about and trying to free himself from the darkness with his eyes closed. Eventually, he is reopening his eyes and he stops moving as he realizes that the feeling is gone now. Matthew looks around to see he is now on another platform. The platform he is standing on has three images of women, but unlike the previous stained glass platforms, they are silhouettes arranged in a triangle. The background of the stained glass floor picture is mostly in red and gold, almost like the sky during sunset.

Upon closer look at the three silhouettes, Matthew sees that at the head is a young woman with a shoulder-length, skinny ponytail. She appears to be wearinga long sleeve shirt, with a short skirt that goes a fourth of the way down her thighs. Her outfit also sports gloves, sneakers, a gauntlet on her right wrist, and holding a single edge claymore in left hand. What ends up getting his attention is the red symbol on her right hand and the fiery aura around her, both in color against the silhouette. Adding in the fact she is holding the sword with one hand, despite it's size,only serves to intrigue the boy more.

 _'She must be pretty strong to hold her sword like that,_ _'_ Matthew marvels mentally, noticing the sword's size and shape.

While he doesn't know how much it weighs, he knows from size alone it must be a heavy blade. _'What is that symbol on her hand though...?'_ Matthew ponders in confusion and curiosity, before dismissing it soon after to focus on the other two silhouettes.

The second silhouette, on the left of the first, is of a woman with long braided hairthat is bound in a ribbon. She is wearing a frilly dress with a pouch of some kind on the side, while bearing a white glow around her. The woman is dual wielding a cutlass in one hand and a one handed claymore in the other, surprising the boy.

 _'That's two women holding a large sword with a single hand...'_ Matthew realizes, currently impressed as he proceeds to turn his attention to the third silhouette.

The third silhouette is of a young woman with her hair down to the middle of her back. She wears a t-shirt as well as a skirt just above the knees while wielding a strange key-shaped sword in her right hand. What grabs the boy's attentionthis time isthe black and purple aura around the mysterious third young woman. As Matthew observes this platform, he wonders just why these three are like shadows instead of seeing the actual person. This does not last long before he iswincing from feeling a throb of pain from his wounds. His attention goes from the mysterious stained glass picture to his wounds, one of which is slightly healed from the green orb thing. One on his left arm seems closer to being healed, but the one on his right leg hasn't changed at all and the wound on his right arm is still the same too. In totality, that leaves one small scratch on his left arm and one semi deep on his right forearm, close to his right elbow. Along with those isa big, but shallow, claw wound on the back of his right leg. It stings quite a bit when running or jumping, but is thankfully not enough to stop him from doing either action.

 _'Guess I can't say this is a dream now. I mean, I_ _'m not_ _suppose to_ _feel pain in_ _my_ _dreams..._ _right?_ _'_ The boy wonders to himself as he gently touches the wound on his leg, before wincing from the tiny flash of pain and soon seeing the blood on his finger.

He sighs at this as he gets up and notices a door with a light shining down on it.

 _'Wonder what's behind the door? Hopefully something to help heal me. Like_ _maybe_ _those green_ _orbs_ _or at least_ _some type of bandages to stop the bleeding_ _...'_ Matthew hopes silently, walking up to the door only to discover it is transparent.

 _'That's new...'_ The boy thinks to himself, blinking at the odd and slightly worrying sight.

Last he can recall, doors aren't supposed to be see through. Reaching out, he tries to open it, but his hand goes right through it like the door isn't there.

 _'I can't open it...'_ The boy thought a little annoyed as he frowned in frustration at his situation. Wondering what he is going to do now, he ends uplooking behind him to see a light shine down on the opposite end of the platform. A small treasure chest appears magically, confusing the boy as he approaches it.

 _'_ _Might as well see what's inside,'_ Matthew decides, trying to open it with his hands, but grunts in building annoyance as it doesn't budge.

Mentally wishing he had the shield in his hand, he is surprised to see the shield appearing in his hand. Quickly pushing his surprise to the back of his mind, he decides to begin attempting to use the shield to break the chest open. Hoping to find something useful inside, several loud thuds ring as he hits the shield against the chest.

 **Thud. Thud! _Thud_ _!_**

Giving a snort of annoyance that bashing the chest wasn't working, Matthew stared at it for a second before tapping it with the shield to listen for an echo. He hopes it might give him some clue how much space is taken up inside the chest. Maybe then he could know what kind of material he is dealing with or how much space said material is taking up **.** Unfortunately, this leads to complete shock as it flies open after being tapped three times.

 _'Are you kidding me?'_ Matthew is amazed, yet annoyed, that simple tapping is all it took to open the chest.

Shaking his head in exasperation at all the weird things he is going through right now, he decides it'll be best not to question a good thing. Looking inside the chest, he finds nothing and it vanishes before his eyes. Then a big wooden box with a yellow star symbol appears not too far from the door.

 _'This just gets stranger and stranger...'_ Matthew thinks, seeing the shield disappear as he walks up to the big wooden box.

 **Push the box.**

Matthew hears the voice whisper into his mind, causing him to look around, but find nothing once again. Seems the voice really doesn't want to be found... Playing along with the voice's call anyway, he pushes the box wondering what else he will be told to do.

 **Smash it.**

Ah, guess he doesn't have to wait long for that to happen. Stopping, Matthew tries to mentally will the shield to appear again, and is thankful when it does so just as he thought of the shield by the handle, he mentally aims the sharp point on the shield toward the box before slamming the shield down on it. Surprise floods him at seeing it not just break open, but completely fall apart to pieces of wood. Those pieces quickly vanish, while an item falls out of the giant box. A blue and gold decorated ball that floats over to him, letting him catch it. As he does, the ball turns into a potion, a clear bottle with green liquid inside meant to heal people.

'Huh? Ask and you shall receive I guess, but I should save this. These wounds aren't serious enough for this yet,' Matthew decides, knowing this potion can heal numerous wounds.

Of course, more serious wounds usually just become smaller to make it easier to be treated or reduce the need of serious medical these small injuries to a serious wound is laughable in his mind, so he puts the potion away for later in his pants pocket. Just as he does that, the outer edge of the door emits a soft glow and becomes more solid in narrows his eyes at the strange, but interesting sight. His mind quickly figures out that listening to the voice will help him make the door solid. Another glow of light appears before it reveals a barrel, which he looks at curiously as he walks up to it. It is a brown wooden barrel with metal lining on the top and bottom of it, holding the wood together. Yellow stars and two squiggly linesare painted near the top and bottom of the barrel, going all the way around.

 **Lift it, carry it, throw it, and be sure to break it.**

The voice whispered in his mind, Matthew thus having a deadpan look on his face that said _'really?'_ , before he finally does so. It is quite light, so he tosses it over his head and catches it with ease using both hand as he smirksa bit at his own small bit of showing off. Hey, if you have to do minor tasks like this, then why not have a little fun doing it? Onward. the boy proceeds to carry it a bit, before throwing it and expecting it to tumble onto its side. He ends upslightly surprised to see it still right side up, but quickly shrugs it already stopped trying to make sense of these weird things after seeing stone trapezoids rise from the stained glass floors that didn't even crack when he first started walking. Yet they shattered right after he chose which weapon to use and which to give up, which he considers strange enough.

 _'I w_ _onder what happened to the_ _staff_ _though..._ _'_ Matthew wonders, curious for a second before shaking it off.

No sense in wondering about something that's already said and done with nothing to do about it. With his mental musing settled, Matthew charges toward the barrel with an overhead slamand follows that up with a punch from the shield to push it back. He then spins and moves forward to slam the shield's side into the barrel, sending it flying surprisingly far. This finally breaks it into pieces as it glides off the platform, much to his mild , the rest of the door then becomes solid much to his relief. Matthew quickly approaches the door, looking at it as he slowly takes in the appearance of it. The aforementioned door is a purple double door with a dull gold color metal holding the silver colored attention is taken bythe small stained glass circle and two stained glass pieces at the top of the door. It seems a bit weird for a design, but he decides not to waste time thinking about it further.

To his surprise the door opens on its own and a bright light shines out. The door slowly finishes opening all the way as the glow softens enough where the boy cannot be blinded. The boy takes a cautious step forward before the light seems to engulf everything around him. The light loses intensity and clears up enough for the boy to see , Matthew then feels surprised to find as he is on the balcony connected to and held up by some trees at their play island on Destiny Islands.

 **Hold on. The door won't open just yet. First, tell me more about yourself.**

The voice explains as the boy notices he isn't alone. What waits for him is the sight of three friends he has not been expecting to see here at all, but is glad none the less. The first is a brown haired boy with spiky hair that goes everywhere, blue eyes, and lightly tan skin. He is wearing a red jumpsuit with a white and black jacket, a pair of white and yellow gloves, along with big yellow shoes. This is complete with a crown necklace around his neck.

The second is a silver shoulder length haired boy with bright blue and green eyes. He is wearing a yellow and black tanktop with white trim, black straps which crisscross and had white on each end. His hands are contained within a pair of black gloves, along with black wristbands. The outfit continues with dark blue pants that have bright blue, baggy pant legs connected with white-studded suspenders, buckled with small black straps on his ankles. A black belt with a silver rectangular buckle is secured around his waist while a pair of blue shoes with white trim and black straps cover his feet. These shoes also sport gray soles, which were decorated with crisscrossing yellow strings on the sides.

The last is a red haired girl with blue eyes and white skin like the boy's own. She wears a white top with a black one underneath, as well as purple biker shorts underneath a purple skirt. Her skirt has a blue belt, while she also wears white slip on shoes with purple tops. The outfit is complete with a black choker, a yellow and purple wristband on her left arm, and a pair of bracelets on her right arm.

Walking up to the boy with brown spiky hair first, Matthew smiles in relief as he is about to ask his friend a question. However...

"What's most important to you?" the boy asks Matthew this before he can get a word in.

This results in Matthew being caught off guard at the sudden question. Just why would he ask him something like that right off the bat?

"Sora, I think we got bigger problems," he comments in response, shaking his head at the now identified Sora.

A boy who was his first friend ever on Destiny Island.

"Like what's going on here and did you hear that voice earlier?" Matthew asks his friend.

Sora says nothing though, just leaning against the rails and smiling without a care. Almost like he is waiting for the boy to answer him patiently. Which is hard to say considering it is Sora, because Matthew knows for a fact Sora can be impatient or easily bored if not given a good reason to wait.

"Sora? Are you listening? Don't start daydreaming man, I'm serious here," Matthew continues, starting to become a little worried and annoyed at Sora's continued silence.

The boy looks to the other two for some help, now thinking something is wrong with Sora.

"Riku! Kairi! I think something's wrong with Sora! What's going on?" The boy asks his other friends **.**

Neither respond to him or show any sign of hearing him, they just continue looking straight ahead without a care in the world. Freaking out slightly over this behavior as he looks back and forth between his friends, Matthew eventually looks back at Sora.

"Sora...please say something," the boy pleads to his friend, hoping he will respond to him.

It is weird seeing his friends act like this and he is honestly worried for them now.

"What's most important to you?" Sora asks again, with his goofy grin never leaving his face.

Matthew, however, sighs athearing that question again.

He is now starting to wonder if this is even his friends to begin with or not. Taking a breath and thinking on it, he eventually figures what is truly important to him.

"My friends are what's important to me," the boy says, firm in his decision as Sora tilts his head to the side like he's contemplating something.

"Are your friends really that important to you?" Sora asks, making the other look at him in panic and worry. How could he ask something like that?

"Of course you are! Why wouldn't I care for my friends? You guys saved me from my loneliness and taught me to stand up for myself! You guys _are_ special to me! Why would you say that, Sora?" Matthew asks rather loudly, looking at Sora pleadingly in hopes he will understand.

Sora just keeps his goofy grin and doesn't mind the boy's pleading at all. After a few seconds of waiting, Matthew figures that this cannot be Sora, it just can't be... or something is seriously wrong here. Looking over to Riku, or a look alike of Riku in the corner, he walks over to him next. Hoping to get this over with and see actual friends soon,Matthew is starting to doubt these three before him are his friends. Riku's smirk stays on his face as Matthew walked up to him.

"Riku?" The boy inquires **,** hoping his friend will respond.

Fortunately he didn't have to wait long.

"What are you so afraid of?" Riku asks the boy as Matthew resists the urge to groan.

Another weird question coming out of left field just like Sora. Regardless, he thinks deeply about it. He considers mentioning his small fears of bees and spiders, but figures that won't do. This sounds too personal a question for something small. So he considers what he is truly afraid of...and there is only one thing that winds up coming to his mind.

"I fear losing my friends and family. I don't want to lose anyone I care for or for them to get hurt," Matthew admits, feeling a weight on his heart at the idea of losing anyone he loved and cared for.

Riku just shrugs at this answer, the same way he's constantly seen Riku do when he isn't concerned about what is going on or being talked about.

"Is losing those you care for so scary?" Riku asks without a care, not seeing or maybe not caring as the boy looked at Riku hurt by his answer...

"How can you say that? Of course it is! I had nothing when I woke up on the islands with no memories, except for my name and how old I was! I was alone until Sora befriended me and got us all to be friends," Matthew tells him with a serious gaze, but Riku never responds.

Matthew meanwhile, finds himself remembering all too well how he woke up in a strange house. Not knowing where he came from or how he got covered in bandages, only for his soon to be adopted parents to tell him how they found had found him on the beach. Bleeding from claw-like wounds with a slight head injury. Thankful to have survived, but very curious of why he couldn't recall anything except his name and that he was five years old. He had asked them to please tell him where he was and where his family was. Sadly, any other questions to die in his throat as they told him they had never seen him on the islands before two days ago. That said, they didn't hold any knowledge of his family or where he came from. They ended up asking if he knew, but felt sad as he told them he knew nothing but his name.

Matthew then recalls being worried about how he would live without any family or memories of his own. That was, until those same people adopted him into their home; even though he was a stranger to them, they would treat him as their own and even got a sister out of it in Kairi. Just as he thinks of her, Matthew turns and walks to what appears to be his adopted sister, Kairi. Now firmly believing these cannot be his friends or sister, he knows there is no way these guys are the real Sora, Riku, and Kairi. They can't be... Walking in front of Kairi, he can't believe how alike these fakes are compared to his friends as he sees this Kairi smile sweetly at him like the real Kairi would do to her closest friends.

"Kairi." Matthew says now, figuring she will talk once he called her name.

"What do you want out of life?" Kairi, or rather this look alike, speaks in response.

Matthew, once again, thinks very hard about it. For a long time, he didn't have much of a goal to live for. He had only thought of finding his lost memories and being strong enough to protect his friends. Other than that, he has no goals for years on out planned, except to find a girl he can say he loves with all his heart of course. The idea honestly makes him feel content, yet longing as well. Focusing on his desires a bit, he soon feels he has found his answer.

"To be stronger and protect those I care for. I don't want anything to hurt them and I refuse to be a burden to those I care for any longer," Matthew responds to this fake Kairi softly, yet passionately and genuinely meaning every word he speaks.

How can he protect anyone if he's too weak to protect them or himself? The only way he can protect them is if he gets stronger. He will do whatever he can to get stronger and make sure those he cares for are kept safe. "Kairi" meanwhile hums in thought over the boy's answer.

"To be stronger and protect those you care for..."Kairi speaks, trailing off thoughtfully with that sweet smile as she stares at the sky now.

 **You want friendship. You're afraid of losing those you care for. You want to be stronger and protect those you care for.**

The voice lists off the boy's answers from all around him,surprising Matthew as he spins around at hearing the voice again. Looking around to see if he can see who was speaking., he ends up frowning as the voice's speaker can't be seen again, despite it being broad daylight out...

 **Your adventure begins at midday. Keep a steady pace and you'll come through fine.**

The voice continues speaking, as Matthew looks up still trying to spot it despite paying attention to what it is saying and trying to wrap his head around its mysterious words. Though he perks up at the mention of an adventure, seeing as he always wanted to go on an adventure.

"Sounds good to me," Matthew says, ready for an adventure.

Maybe he can gain the strength he needs to protect his friends while on his adventure!

 **The day you will protect the world of El and others that come in your path is both far off and very near.**

The voice tells the boy softly, confusing Matthew as a flash of light appears and envelops everything again.

 _'World of El?'_ Matthew thinks in wonder and confusion as the light blinds him for a few seconds. Walking forward to see the light dying down, Matthew finally sees he is on another stained glass platform again. Stopping to admire the platform he is standing on this time. This one is showing the sleeping image of a young woman with pale white skin, a blue gem on her head, and a gold rim surrounding the blue silver hair is in a pair of side buns. She wears a short and skinny white dress with black top, along with a longer and more flowing coat, and tall white gray boots attached to a garter belt or her woman has pictures of the red haired boy, along with two drones near her, one a black drone with a white mask and one white drone with a black mask. While the red haired boy with red eyes was still giving his confident grin. This ends up confusing the boy as he cannot help but wonder why only the red haired boy and those little machine things is near the woman...

He takes a few steps forward across this platform as a light shines down on the center of the platform. The boy walks up to it and soon a shadow appears not too far from him. Rising out of the ground with more coming along. Sensing that weird and dangerous feeling again, he looks over his shoulder to see the Shadows from before. His shield appears in hand, with which he grips the handle as he assumes a battle stance to face his foes. The Shadows swarm toward him from the front, left and right. They are clearly trying to overwhelm him in numbers, before he moves to the right flank and punches one of the creatures. Following this by slamming the shield over it's head, he is soon spinning around in a full circle with both hands on the shield handle for extra force. Knocking into the Shadows around him, they are sent flying as the side of his shield makes contact. Five Shadows bite the dust, but one scratches his back for his hisses in pain, before dodging to the left to avoid a follow up attack. Spinning around to face the shadows and punching the one who attacked him back, he then sees out of the corner of his eye that more are coming out of the ground.

'I need to avoid getting surrounded,'Matthew reminds himself as he slams the shield's sharp point over the Shadow's head.

He then whacks it away with a two handed side swipe from his shield, thus killing the shadow and dropping more green balls like the previous ones had a strange feeling envelops him at this instant. Making him feel...more solid? He doesn't have time to think about it as he focuses on the quickly advancing shadow time collecting the green orbs as he runs to avoid being surrounded, Matthew lets out a relieved sigh as he feels the wounds healing with each orb his body absorbs. Happy to see his wounds are all healed from the brief glances he throws to both his arms and his right leg, he still feels the blood on his body as he jumps back to avoid two more attacking him from the the shield sharp point down on one about to sneak attack him on the right, Matthew then punches the one closest to his front, and spins again as they all come in to gang up on him.

"Take this!" Matthew shouts, knocking seven of them back while holding the shield with both hands in a spin attack with his full strength.

"Agh!" Matthew grunts in pain, feeling two claws graze into him.

One claw is on his right forearm and another is clawing into the back of his right leg again. Jumping away from the four heartless chasing him, he glares at the little monsters, but wonders why they don't hurt as bad this time thought is quickly kicked out of his mind as he feels a flash of pain from putting too much pressure on his leg during the landing.

"I just had that healed, you monster!" Matthew yells in fury as he races forward.

They jump, trying to hit him from multiple sides, only for the boy to lean forward and roll under their attack. This immediately ends up causing them to miss as he quickly gets back on his feet, sprinting toward them again. This time, he jumps while running to the right, letting his momentum do extra damage when he punches the lone heartless on the far right. It flinches back, before he slams the shield sharp point on it. Then he moves to its left, slamming the side of the shield into it as well as the nearest monster racing toward him, getting two Shadows with one attack. The last two Shadows are now rushing toward him as the boy races right at them. Seeing one jump, he shield blitzes the one on the ground. The one jumping barely scratches his shoulder as he tries to avoid the attack. He doesn't mind it as he takes his shield and pierces the shadow's body with the sharp bottom of his shield before side-swiping it away. Its body vanishes, before the boy feels that ominous feeling coming closer behind him. Spinning around to see the last one slowly rising from the ground, he takes the shield in both hands from the shield's edges again and bashes it over the head like a steel chair three times. This kills the last offending shadow and leaves the boy panting in exhaustion.

"That...was...a workout..." Matthew murmurs to himself, panting lightly.

Mentally kicking himself for getting clawed multiple times, he's thankful for those little green orbs that healed his wounds. Without them he would be a bleeding mess, he is sure. Though he definitely looks like he got into a bloody fight, judging from his pants leg being a mix of blue and bloodstains with tears in the jeans. His shirt has some claw marks on it now, with some blood staining it too. His right shoe and sock also have blood stains from where it trailed down his injured leg. He lets out a sigh of exasperation, hoping he will still have clothes by the time he figures out what is going on. Matthew begins looking up and around the platform to see if anything is going to happen.

Fortunately the light shines down from above to reveal a glowing green circle. When he steps on it with caution, he feels a feeling of safety coming from the aforementioned circle. Weird as it is for him and wondering why it makes him feel safe, the boy soon shakes the thoughts away while feeling blissful and safe. Feeling almost like nothing will harm him as long as he stands on this circle, he discovers that the wounds on his body are quickly healing, thankfully without any scars left behind. Looking down on himself, the boy frowns when seeing his clothes still look torn and bloodied.

 _'Kairi is going to freak if she sees me like this,'_ Matthew thinks, knowing Kairi hates seeing her friends hurt, especially Sora and Riku.

Still, he himself is third on that short list. Before he knows it, a stained glass pathway appears, leading to what he assumes to be a pillar holding up a stained glass platform.

 _'Wait, does that mean I'm on a pillar too?'_ Matthew wonders, walking to the path and glancing over the edge before gulping.

Now knowing that he _really_ doesn't want to fall over, seeing that there is nothing but black darkness as far as he can see down there. He quickly looks back up and makes his way to the pathway up to the new pillar. He finds himself hoping for some answers to the strange things he has been through now, as well as about the creatures he fought to get here. Soon he is on the new platform of stained glass to see it is a picture of two ladies sleeping back to back. He can almost say they are twins, except for some key differences between them.

One is a young woman with white skin and long black hair in twin braids. Another is a young woman with free flowing white hair, as well as fox ears on her head, and nine white tails laying around the two sleeping young women. Oddly, they wear the same clothing... A short, sleeveless dress colored black and red that comes above the knees. The skirt is layered, with gold rims along it. A red and white jacket is worn with it, along with a red and gold sash around the middle. The two women both also wear simple crew socks in white, with a red trim at the top, and wear Japanese sandals on their they are twins or two very alike people with the same taste in clothes, Matthew just doesn't know which one of the two theories it is at the moment. He is also wondering why this station shows two sleeping women back to back with only a single spear between them and one image of a man nearby to them. This man has black skin, white hair, and red eyes. He has two curved horns on his head that are mainly black, but have some red in them. Oddly, he isn't smiling like most people in the pictures, rather having an expressionless look on his face. Despite this confusing the boy slightly, he shakes off the thought for now to look around. Seeing the beam of light on the center of the platform, Matthew walks up to it.

 **The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes.**

The voice speaks to the boy, before he senses a much stronger version of the terrible feeling he keeps getting. Whatever it is, this thing must be much more dangerous then those little Shadows, so he slowly looks back warily to see his shadow has stretched out. It begins slowly rising out of the ground and growing in height. Shock rises within the boy as he sees the shadow of himself stand on its feet, before changing shape and stretching out it's hand toward him.

 **But don't be afraid.**

The voice continues to speak to Matthew, who is slowly backing up as he sees it finish changing shape to look like a giant buff man made of shadows. Glowing yellow eyes stare fiercely at Matthew, while black tendril like hair, large muscular arms, and tiny legs detail the creature. Despite his surprise that those tiny legs can hold the creature, Matthew realizes one more feature. Most eye catching of all, he sees a heart shaped hole in its torso that sits where the stomach should be.

 **And don't forget.**

The voice speaks once more before fading away as the boy looks back to see there is nowhere to go. Gulping, he stands his ground whilst trying to will the shield to appear. Once more, the shields ends up appearing at his mental call in a flash of light.

"Don't forget what?" Matthew asks before seeing the giant lower its arm.

Seeing its fist glowing a black and purple light as it stands full height with its glowing fist raised high, Matthew gets an idea. Running full speed for the legs closing their distance quickly, he begins swiping his shield at the monster's legs in a leg sweep fashion just as the giant strikes the ground with it's fist. To Matthew's shock however, the leg sweep does nothing as his shield passes through its legs harmlessly. He tries to figure in his head how that is possible, before seeing more little Shadows rising from a portal that surrounds the fist sunk into the stained glass pillar they were standing on.

"You've got to be kidding me," Matthew manages, gritting his teeth at the little annoyances being back for more.

Immediately charging them with a slam from the sharp point to the closest one, he then punches another on his right, and finally spins with both hands on the shield handle. While this ends up killing four heartless stupid enough to get too close, Matthew sees the giant shadow thing on its knees with its arms covering it's stomach. He is then forced to break attention as a shadow claws his right arm.

"Agh! You little..." Matthew trails angrily as he side swipes it.

With that knocking it down, he takes the shield by the edges and slams it on the shadow twice like a steel chair again. This kills it, before he senses that dangerous feeling coming closer behind him. Spinning around in time to see a purple orb heading for him, he smacks it with the shield in both of his hands while still holding the edges of the shield. Hitting with the shield knocks the orb toward the giant surprisingly, just as he slams downward only for the orb to hit its head. It groans in pain before firing another purple orb from the heart shaped hole. Matthew quickly repeats the tactic, to test if it works the way he thinks it does. However, this time he jumps up and slams it with the shield while in midair. Matthew feels intrigue and confidence swell within himself as it flies straight to its head, hurting it again. That strange solid feeling comes up again briefly, only this time he feels a little stronger instead of more solid. He quickly puts the thoughts aside as he lands on his feet.

Judging by the groan in pain as it takes the kneeling position again, Matthew decides this idea is working. Watching it cover that hole with its arms, Matthew chooses to test his luck and attacks the arms with the sharp point on the bottom of his shield, noticing he can hit this part too. Soon seeing the giant shadow fire three purple balls now, he retreats back to avoid getting hit immediately. Yet he notices they are still heading right for him.

 _'These things follow me?'_ Matthew ponders, confused as he holds the shield by the handle, before swinging sideways as the three purple orbs get close together.

Knocking all three back into the giant's head, he watches as it gets up again and slams its fist into the ground once more to create another portal of what he thinks might be darkness. As this makes more of those little Shadows show up again, Matthew narrows his eyes in annoyance as he rushes forward and starts attacking them with his shield. This time leading with a running punch, he then uses a strike from the sharp end of the shield over its head, before spinning with a shout. His spin knocks all Shadows away, and they are soon all dead. Once that happens, he sees the giant shadow charging more purple orbs with those arms over the hole again. Quickly running to one end of the platform he waits and watches it fire five of them this time.

 _'Oh shoot,'_ Matthew thinks, waiting for them to get close together.

Timing their approach, he jumps up and swings at them sideways in a spin. He hisses in pain as he knocks four back, but feels one hit his right shoulder. He lands on his feet, groaning from the weird feeling affecting his shoulder briefly. He cannot shake the feeling that screams "dark" and "dangerous" from the orb hitting him. Matthew soon sees the shadow giant lower its fist to sink into the floor again, and runs forward to whack the shield over its head like a steel chair. Performing this repeatedly, its body starts letting out sparks and it groans loudly in pain. At this same moment he feels himself become surrounded in that prior, non-dangerous feeling again before it vanishes. He doesn't notice any change like strength or solidness, but feels pretty good about the feeling nonetheless. It did nothing but help him so far, so why question it now?

Sadly, this victorious feeling is short lived as Matthew's shield disappears. Shocking the boy at the sudden disappearance, he quickly jumps back to avoid the muscular arm of the giant shadow slamming down where he was standing previously. Matthew is soon on the ground from his hasty jump backwards, only sensing the black and purple portal just as it appears under him. The darkness from it quickly wraps around his legs to prevent his escape.

 **But don't be afraid.**

The voice calls as the giant stands a little taller, while Matthew is struggling to free himself.

 **You hold the mightiest weapon of all.**

The voice continues despite the struggle Matthew is having to free himself. He doesn't know why it is telling him this, but he listens as he tries to free himself from getting surrounded in this darkness trying to wrap around his body. He is soon extending his arm out for someone, anyone, to save him from the darkness that was trying to drag him into the portal.

 **So don't forget:**

The voice's call is loud and clear, despite the darkness surrounding his body. It is almost as if the darkness is trying to swallow him as everything is turning black.

 **You are the one, who will protect the world of El and others that come in your path.**

The voice says this one final time as Matthew feels himself surrounded by darkness and everything finally goes black...

"Ah!" Matthew shouts, shooting up from his bed.

He ends up throwing the covers off his body and panting while trying to calm his rapidly beating heart from the experience of being swallowed by that... darkness. It is the only word that seems to make sense of what he is feeling from those Shadows and the giant shadow he fought. Plus that weird black and purple portal trying to swallow him up... After a few seconds, he calms himself enough to notice he is truly back in his own room. Sighing in relief that when he checks himself, he sees no wounds or blood on his body.

"Matt! Are you awake yet?!" A familiar voice calls out to him from outside.

Matthew sighs as he gets up from bed and makes his way to the window. Poking his head out to see Riku waving him over to the docks, Matthew can't help smiling at seeing his friend actually acting like himself again.

"Come on, Matt! Today's the day we start building the raft! Meet us at the spot we talked about, okay?" Riku calls to Matthew as he walks to the docks, with Matthew waving his hand to show he heard.

"I'll be there soon! Just let me get dressed and have some breakfast!" Matthew responds to Riku who gives a thumbs up before running off.

Satisfied that Riku understands, Matthew pulls back inside and stretches his arms out to work the kinks out of his body as he tries to fully wake up.

 _'Best get dressed and ready to meet up with Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Don't want to keep them waiting too long or Sora might slack off...again. Though that's assuming Kairi is already there and mom already woke her up,'_ Matthew thinks idly, walking to his closet and grabbing his pants to put them on.

This causes him to pause as he felt a bump in the pants against his right leg, a familiar bump that shouldn't be there. Reaching into his right pants pocket, he grabs what feels like a bottle and pulls it out. Worry and confusion fill his heart as he holds the potion in his hand.

' _I know for a fact I emptied my pockets before bed._ _M_ _y parents wouldn't put things in my pants without telling me_ _and_ _neither would Kairi...'_ Matthew realizes, a little worried about the bottle he holds in his hand while he tries to figure out if this has to do with the strange messages the voice told him.

"Matt! Breakfast is ready!" Kairi's voice calls from the door, before opening it and taking one look before blushing as well as slamming the door shut.

"Put your clothes on, Matt! I don't want to see you in your underwear!" Kairi protests, rushing off, making Matthew blush at his slip up realizing she was right because he hasn't put his pants on all the way just yet.

 _'Oops...'_ Matthew thinks, very embarrassed at his mistake.

Leaning out the door to his room, he looks in her direction.

"Sorry, Kairi!" he tries calling to her, but she pays him little mind while rushing down the stairs.

He sighs to himself, before getting dressed in a hurry and hoping to put the bizarre dream out of his mind...

 **That's the Prologue chapter people! I know some of you aren't happy with me from my earlier work if you seen it, but I have run into complications that kept me from completing it and I will have a AN in the next chapter of Container's Bond to explain my reasons. Give it a read with the new chapter once ready and I hope you'll understand. If not, then do what you want EXCEPT flaming. I don't need any hate from anyone over circumstances I couldn't control!**

 **So please review and NO FLAMES! I will accept criticism and advice meant to help me improve, but I won't tolerate haters. If hating is all you can do, then keep it to yourself! Especially anyone who hates OC's or having any characters from a series paired with an OC. Who I choose to let fall in love in MY story is MY business alone!**

 **:IMPORTANT!: No, Matthew will not immediately go to Elrios. I mean, starting out as a kid with little to no training on an island and then waking up on Elrios would make it way harder on him to fight back. Let alone actually help or protect anyone he cares for. So I'm sorry fellow Elsword fans, but you'll have to wait a few worlds before he gets there. Also, I had to make slight adjustments to the prologue when I realized I overlooked the actual date of when Radiant Garden was overrun/infested with Heartless. So where he was found on Destiny Islands has changed in adjustment to his age of being found. Considering five year old kids falling out of tree houses is...very dangerous to say the least.**


	2. Chapter 1 Destiny Island Arc Part 1

**Heart of the Free Wielder**

 **By: warrior of six blades**

 **Chapter 1: Destiny Island Arc, Part I**

 **Beta: AngelOfFluffiness**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing, except my OC Matthew so far, so don't even think of suing me.**

 **AN: I dedicate this story, not the chapter, but the story itself to my feelings to Elly and my prayers for us both.  
AN: If anyone has a problem with OC or OC falling in love with characters from a series. I suggest you leave now because this has both and I have no time to waste on haters. For those of you who are more accepting. Please read, enjoy, and review.** **  
**

The morning sun is shining bright in the sky, casting its warm sunlight on the little islands below. Matthew notices some of the kids playing there already as he rows his little row boat to the dock. Matthew finishes tying it up in time to see Riku coming over to him with a smile as he gives a wave in greeting.

"Hey, Matt! It's about time you showed up. What kept you?" Riku asks Matthew, who scratches the back of his neck nervously.

"Sorry about that, Riku. I wanted to get some breakfast first and grab my wooden sword for some training today," Matthew explains to Riku, holding out his wooden sword to prove his point.

This surprises Riku slightly, as Matthew doesn't usually get involved in sparring too much, even though he knows Matthew can hold his own pretty good.

"I'm ready to start working on the raft when you are though! So where are we building it?" Matthew asks at this point, looking around to see if he can spot the logs they have collected so far for the raft.

Riku can't help the grin on his face getting a little wider on this subject. It is the only way Matthew knows he is truly eager for either a good spar or something that interests him.

"The other side of the island, I thought it would be best not to do it around the others. I rather not risk Wakka hitting the raft with his beach ball or Tidus breaking it while sparing by mistake," Riku explains to Matthew while walking off the docks.

Matthew ends up following in step behind him as he leads the way to the ship's location. He decides to take the time to look at the scenery as he followed Riku. The islands are still as beautiful as he remembers. Tall exotic palm trees that lightly sway with the wind with some shrubbery dot the yellow sandy beaches. The blue ocean that sparkled light off of the sunlight filled the air with a salty scent, and even the big treehouse built on the giant tree that you climb some ladders to get up to added some flare to the islands Matthew called home. Another ladder lets you get on a walkway that leads to a balcony where he can actually see someone swinging a stick around. If Matthew had to bet, he would bet that it's probably one of the kids he knows, simply practicing for some sparring action today. As Riku jumps off the island divider with Matthew following close behind, he notices the waterfall next to a tiny cave that a child could crawl into as well as a seaside shack near a bridge.

"Come on, Matt!" Riku shouts to Matthew, standing under a bridge connected to a separate island with some more exotic palm trees on it, "Don't go day dreaming on me now! You're almost as bad as Sora!"

Riku continues to playfully scold his friend with a smirk on his face that he usually has when teasing his friends. Matthew narrows his eyes in accusation and annoyance, before he rushes after Riku. Said boy runs up a ramp made from a piece of sturdy wood leaning against another divider, which leads to a brown door.

"What do you mean, 'I'm almost as bad as Sora?'! I don't go around sleeping in broad daylight!" Matthew shouts his complaint as he is chasing Riku, who only laughs at Matthew's complaints since he is aware that Matt isn't mad at all, but just playing around with him too.

Soon Riku makes it to the other side of the island, with Matthew following close behind as he sees this part is quite different from the front side. This time, the divider stops at the small hill of beach sand that leads into shallow ocean water. However, there is also a wooden bridge connected to it that definitely needs some repairs sometime in the future. This is rather obvious judging from how some of the wooden platforms and boards are missing, but thankfully look solid enough to support people for the most part. So it can probably wait a little while, but they have to remember to jump the gaps. This point being proven as Matthew spots Riku jumping over the gaps in order to head for the raft's supposed location. He makes it there, simply stopping at the other side of the bridge before waving him over.

"Come on, Matt! This way!"

Matthew shakes his head, amused and happy to see Riku so excited to start their work on the raft. He finds himself quickly following after his friend, but being careful to jump over the gaps. Especially the loose-looking board hanging on one part of the many platforms by only a few bent nails.

 _'Someone really needs to fix that...'_ Matthew thinks to himself as he lands on another platform.

Soon making his way to Riku, Matthew ends up seeing a brown scaffold tower with a ladder leading up. Attached to the tower is a zip line used to get to the other side quickly, over where down the rocky divider of boulders was more palm trees, more yellow sandy beach, and the big blue ocean. What finally gets Matthew's attention though are the four big logs, one long skinny pole that looked sturdy, and one long rope.

 _'Guess Riku couldn't find everything we need. There isn't enough rope to securely tie those logs together. Plus we need a sail, food, and drinking water to think about too,'_ Matthew thinks to himself, while looking at the supplies that will be used to make a raft.

"So you ready to get to work, Matt?" Riku asks Matthew, smiling in excitement to get started as he rolled some big logs tight together.

Matthew, understanding Riku's plan, moves to tie the rope ends from under the aforementioned logs together. He then starts pulling the rope tight, in order to keep the logs secured.

 **:Time Skip:**

Matthew grunts as he finishes securing the mast post that will hold the sail for their raft. Looking up to Riku, he sees him standing a distance away tapping his foot impatiently. Matthew knows Riku is getting fed up with waiting for a certain someone...again.

"Sora's late to help us again isn't he?" Matthew states this more than asks.

"Yup," Riku answers, without breaking his foot tapping or his annoyed gaze from the door leading to the other side of the island.

"Was he supposed to help us build the raft or get us supplies? Cause I'm out of rope and we need a sail," Matthew inquires further, dusting himself off as he stood up.

He's clearly poised to move, ready to go looking for Sora in either case since it's better that he finds Sora and they finish this project soon. After all, he knows how important this is to Riku...

"Both, actually. But it seems Sora is most likely snoozing around again," Riku responds, sighing before turning his full attention to Matthew, "-would you mind going to look for Sora to wake his lazy butt up? I'd like to finish the raft as soon as possible so we can check out the other worlds."

Matthew smiles in reply with a nod and walks to the other side of the beach, "Leave it to me, Riku!" Matthew calls over his shoulder without looking at Riku as he makes his way to the door.

"And don't go daydreaming again! I don't want to go looking for both of you now!" Riku calls out to his friend with his ever smug smirk, with Matthew playfully glaring at him before opening the door and walking through it.

 _'Yeah, yeah, whatever,'_ Matthew ponders silently, both amused and a little annoyed at Riku's playful banter.

Seriously, it's not his fault his mind kind of drifts off at times. It's just if he gets bored or his mind gets caught on a certain thought. He tends to lose focus on what's around him as his mind drifts off from things around him to his thoughts. It doesn't take long, however, before Matthew makes his way to the other side of the beach. Enjoying the sight of small white clouds in the clear blue sky, Matthew begins searching for Sora.

A search that proves rather short as he sees him sleeping on the beach.

 _'Sora...what are we gonna...wait...'_ Matthew thinks, exasperated at first, before noticing the way Sora is tossing and turning in his sleep.

 _'Is he having a nightmare?'_ Matthew wonders, becoming concerned, and making his way over to his seemingly distressed friend only to notice Kairi doing the same.

However, the smile on her face makes Matthew wonder if she even knows he is having a nightmare or not.

 _'Better wake him up anyway,'_ Matthew thinks, about to call out to Sora, only for the boy to gasp upon waking up on his own.

He seems out of it for a minute, before gasping and jolting into a sitting position when Sora finally sees Kairi leaning over him. Seeing Kairi and Sora sharing a light chat about him being a lazy bum relieves Matthew slightly.

"No! This huge black THING swallowed me up" Sora shouts as he remembered what he saw in his bizarre dream.

Matthew freezes at this. Did Sora just go through what he did in his own dream?

"I couldn't breathe, I couldn't- Ow!" Sora tries to explain before his head starts to hurt.

"Are you still dreaming?" Kairi asks Sora playfully, clearly not seeming too worried about what Sora was talking about.

"It wasn't a dream!" Sora cries out seriously, before looking unsure of his own words, "Or was it? I don't know..." he mumbles while trying to make sense of what he experienced.

All the while, Matthew quietly watches Sora, very worried and curious about whether or not they had the same dream.

"What was that place?" Sora seems to ask himself, "So bizarre..."

 _'Good question,'_ Matthew wonders as well, placing a hand on his chin in thought.

"Yeah, sure," Kairi says dismissively, apparently not bothered by her friend's behavior or the weird dream he went through.

Matthew watches as Kairi walks toward the beach a bit further past Sora, just out of reach of the tide. Standing there, she ends up looking off into the distance without a care in the world. While Matthew just can't help smiling at how Sora hasn't seemed to notice him standing not too far from them.

"Say, Kairi, what was your hometown like? You know, where you grew up?" Sora asks Kairi, watching her just look out into the distance.

 _'When Kairi is around, she's all that he can think about...Except his rivalry with Riku that is,'_ Matthew mentally notes while watching their interaction in amusement.

Deciding to keep quiet for now, he waits to see if Kairi will finally admit her secret crush to the boy or not. Said crush is something that he found out easily, but Kairi swore him to secrecy using the threat that she would reveal his own secret interest for romantic adventure stories...

"I told you before, I don't remember," Kairi answers before looking at Matthew, "-how about you, Matt? Did you get any of your memories back yet?" Kairi asks, making Sora look behind him and jump in surprise.

The brown haired boy is just now noticing one of his friends behind him, while Matthew smirks at the look of surprise and shock on Sora's face. It is a look that just screams, _'When did he get there?'_ which he secretly feels is fun to see at times.

"Matt! When did you get here?" Sora shouts in surprise to his friend, who only shrugs in response.

"I got here while you was having your nightmare, but you woke yourself up before I could even try to. After that, I let you and Kairi have your little chat," Matthew answers honestly, earning a sheepish smile from Sora.

While Kairi placed her hands on her hips looking at Matthew with an annoyed expression, "Don't dodge the question, Matt. Did you get any memories back yet?"

Even though Kairi asks, Matthew swears it feels more like a demand. Maybe she's still upset about him not having his pants on when she came into his room this morning?

"No, I wish I did have some of my memories at least though," Matthew told her honestly, frowning at his own lack of memories.

Memories that he's lacked ever since he was found here on the islands by Kairi's adoptive family. They had found him all bloody and cut up on the beach. He's been her adopted brother ever since that day. Together they have tried to get back their memories, though Matthew has felt like he is the only one really trying to remember his past. To him, it really seems that Kairi has accepted losing her memories.

He honestly doesn't understand why she seems to not mind losing her memories. Though he believes Sora may have something to do with it. Not that he is mad at Sora for it, but it's still weird how she seems not bothered by her lack of knowledge or memories of her life before the islands. Sora, however, frowns at Matthew's answer before deciding to get his attention by patting his arm. Matthew looks at Sora to see his encouraging grin.

"Don't worry, Matt, you'll get your memories back someday," Sora tells him before turning his attention to Kairi who is just looking out into the distance again.

Neither of them know why, but they don't question it.

"Are you sure you remember nothing Kairi? Nothing at all?" Sora asks, hoping to learn something new about his redhead friend and secret crush.

Something he works hard to keep secret, both from Riku and especially Matthew. He has nothing against him, but he knows how brothers are protective of their sisters... He knows Matthew as a good friend who never fights without a good reason or to keep in shape through sparing. It's just that he isn't ready to ask Matthew or Kairi's dad for permission to date Kairi yet. Meanwhile, Matthew smiles as he watches Sora's curiosity of Kairi. He knows Sora wants to learn more about her because he has feelings for her despite his obvious attempts to play off his feelings as just friends. Well...him and Riku from the look of things. He isn't sure if Riku is serious or not, but he knows there is more seriousness in their competitions when Kairi is somehow involved or around. Matthew supposes that might be what being in love is like. He just wishes he would meet someone like that himself. Sadly, the girls on the islands that he's met so far aren't girlfriend material to him. He soon shakes those thoughts out of his head and turns his attention back to Kairi and Sora.

"Nothing," she responds.

"You ever want to go back?" Sora asks softly.

"Well, I'm happy here," Kairi finally tells Sora simply, while Matthew resists the urge to roll his eyes.

He knows exactly why she is happy here and in some ways, he can't blame her. Her heart seems happier both with Sora and the islands they've called home for years now. With that being one of the reasons why he gets along with Riku better than Sora and Kairi, it is not that he has anything against them or their love for being on the islands. He likes it too, but it gets so boring here at times and he feels like it will be nice to see what is really out there...

"Really..." Sora trails off, a little confused on her content nature to her lack of memories.

While he knows Matthew is actually quite curious about his own past, not that Sora blames him. After all, he would hate it if he forgot those he cared for.

"But you know..." Kairi ponders, grabbing both boys' attention as she smiles out at the sea. "I wouldn't mind going to see it."

Just like that, Kairi finishes her sentence, while Sora readjusts himself on the sand in order to sit comfortably. Looking out to sea just as Kairi is, with Matthew admiring the sight of the large blue body of water. He has to admit that despite how boring the islands can be at times, they are quite beautiful to just sit back and relax. Taking the time to enjoy the beautiful view and sounds on these islands...it is something that some would say it's paradise or maybe a good spot to settle down.

"I'd like to see it too," Sora tells her with a bright look in his eyes full of curiosity and wonder, "-along with any other worlds out there! I want to see them all!" Sora exclaims, excited and curious of what they might find.

Matthew smiles as he understands those feelings all too well, wanting to go see the other worlds for himself as well. Something they hope to accomplish by completing the raft...

Wait...

 _'Shoot! I was supposed to bring back Sora to help us finish the raft!'_ Matthew realizes in worry, mentally kicking himself at getting side tracked for so long.

Kairi and Sora don't seem to notice Matthew's internal worry as Kairi smiles at Sora, turning her attention to the boy.

"So what are we waiting for?" Kairi asks Sora, but does glance at Matthew to let him know she is asking him too.

"Hey, aren't you guys forgetting about me?" Riku inquires, walking up behind them.

Throwing Matthew an accusing look as said boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously, Riku wordlessly passes the amnesiac boy. Matthew finds himself muttering a quiet _'Sorry,'_ to Riku who shakes his head. A small smile on his lips tells Matthew he isn't angry, making the young boy feel relieved.

"So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft," Riku tells them with a humored smile as he passes Sora, tossing the log on him.

This ends up making Sora fall back trying to catch it properly, causing Matthew to chuckle quietly with a small smile at Sora's silly attempt of catching the log. Kairi giggling as well, either at the sight of Sora's attempt to catch a log or at Riku, Matthew isn't sure.

"And you're just as lazy as he is!" Riku exclaims with a playful accusing tone to Kairi with no heat or anger to his words.

Kairi however doesn't seem to mind or try to deny. She ends up giggling at the accusation and taking it in stride.

"So you noticed," Kairi speaks with a smile on her lips, before smiling at Riku, Sora, and Matthew, "-okay, we'll finish it together."

"I'll race you!" Kairi declares as Riku plops down next to Sora while Matthew raises an eyebrow at Kairi.

He is wondering if she is serious or not, not that he would mind it too much...

"Huh?"

"What, are you kidding?"

Sora and Riku both respond to Kairi's declaration for a race respectively. Kairi doesn't mind the reactions one bit.

"Ready? Go!" Kairi calls out and without a second delay, Matthew shoots off while taking advantage of Sora and Riku's mistake for sitting down.

"Cheater!"

"That's not fair, Matt!"

Sora and Riku cry out behind Matthew respectively. They take off running after Matthew only a second behind their friend as they get on their feet. Kairi goes running behind them, giggling as Matthew looks behind him with a challenging smile on his face.

"Maybe next time you lazy bums won't be sitting around when Kairi starts a race!" Matthew calls out behind him, before focusing ahead of him.

Sora gapes comically while Riku's eyes narrow at the challenge.

"But you had a head start!"

"All is fair in love and war, Sora!"

"Then don't mind me if I pass you!"

"Not that easy, Riku!"

"Don't you two count me out yet!"

"Give up, Sora! No way you're beating me!"

"Sora's not your only opponent, Riku!"

"You two are so eating my dust!"

Kairi continues to giggle while trailing behind the three racing boys as they rush ahead. Smiling the whole way as they traded competitive words to one another, Matthew has to admit, it is small moments like these he does honestly enjoy about living on the islands. Though it may be boring at times, he has to admit it does have some fun moments too. Especially with friends like Sora, Riku, and Kairi in his life to make things interesting...

 **:Time Skip:**

Matthew watches the clouds with a tranquil smile as he waits for Sora to come tell him what they have to find. Even with a head start, Riku won Kairi's race. So, as punishment for both the head start and for "daydreaming" again, Matthew has to help Sora collect whatever items Kairi tells Sora they need. Yet, he can't help feeling like it is partly because Riku doesn't want to risk Sora taking another afternoon nap again. Not that he can blame Riku if that is the case.

 _'Speaking of sleeping... should I ask Sora about that?'_ Matthew wonders to himself with slight concern.

He soon ends up wondering if it is a smart idea to ask Sora about the dream they both might've had in the same day. Unlikely as it was, it's not impossible for two people to dream the same thing. But in the same day? That's even less likely...

"Hey, Matt!" Sora's voice calls out to Matthew.

This call breaks Matthew out of his thoughts as he turns his head to see his friend run up to him with a smile, with a question of, "You ready to go get those items for our raft?"

"Sure, but are you sure you know what we need or do you have to ask Kairi again?" Matthew responds, giving a teasing smile to his friend who pouted at his teasing.

"Yes, I know exactly what we need...this time." Sora speaks, before muttering the last part quietly.

Not that it helps much as Matthew has a small grin on his face, much to Sora's ire as he walks ahead of Matthew who follows close behind.

"Now first we need two logs, one cloth, and one rope," Sora lists off, Matthew nodding in understanding as he looks at the log Sora picked up.

"Make that one log now, but you get what I mean right?" Sora asks Matthew looking at him to make sure he was paying attention.

"Yeah, two logs, one cloth, and one rope at first. Now one log, one cloth, and one rope left. I just hope we find the rest soon," Matthew explains calmly, but on the inside wants to get this search done soon.

After all, he is serious about having some spars to sharpen his skills and increase his strength after all. Sora doesn't seem to mind as he gave Matthew a smile.

"Great! Then let's get those items to Kairi and maybe we can spar with our friends along the way!" Sora chimes, happy at the thought of some spars today before ribbing Matthew with his elbow lightly, "Seeing as you're carrying your wooden sword today, I take it you want to spar too?"

This is asked with a knowing and eager grin.

"Yeah, that's the idea, Sora," Matthew confirms with a small smile as Sora cheered.

"You better bring your best, Matt! I plan on beating Riku today and becoming strongest on the islands. Which means I would like to spar with you sometime today too!" Sora exclaims, eager to become number one strongest on Destiny Islands.

Matthew only shakes his head at Sora's enthusiasm, he wants to be strong too, but not to be number one. Rather, he wishes to get stronger solely to protect his friends. That way he can be strong enough to keep them safe just as they did him when he first met them..or rather he should say when Sora insisted on befriending him. He stills remembers how shy and quiet he was around other people at first on the islands. Even around his adoptive family he was shy and quiet back then, though Kairi was someone he was slowly warming up to at the time. It was mostly because he felt so confused and worried at his lack of memories. On top of being surrounded by strangers in a strange place he had no memory of no less. It's no wonder he had confidence issues about approaching anyone on his own.

Which is why at first, he was nervous around the energetic and happy boy, but as Sora played some games with him. He slowly started coming out of his shell more and more. Sora even helped him conquer his childish fears of heights and crawling in dark places like the secret spot.

Having Sora as his new friend only helped him more so, as he saw how strong Sora was and soon got to meet Riku. Watching their spars made him feel like watching two knights in training. Something he honestly wished to be more and more, as he was told a few stories about knights who fought to protect others.

He never knew where the stories came from or the knights themselves, but it didn't lower his interest in any way. His adoptive parents mentioned how they were noble warriors who lived with a code of honor, fought for the sake of their people, protected those precious to them. Yet, that meeting with Sora, and eventually Riku, made Matthew feel like he needed to repay them, for being so kind to him and being his friends.

They didn't have to befriend the shy quiet boy he was or help him gain confidence in himself, but they, mostly Sora, did. He could never forget such kindness and wanted to be a true friend to them for it.

It also made Matthew want to be strong to protect Sora and Riku too. Just like in those stories of the knights from his bedtime stories. To no longer be a burden when he saw how much they cared for each other and for him too. He even learned how to fight with a wooden sword under Riku's and Sora's teaching in his effort to be stronger.

If learning how to fight by experience alone and basic stances counts as training that is... He just hopes he will become strong enough to be able to protect his friends. It is the least he can do after they helped him become who he is today.

"Sure thing, Sora, but not right now. I think I'll spar with Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie a bit before we spar," Matthew tells Sora as they walk down the beach in search of the items for the raft.

"What about Riku? Aren't you gonna spar with him again?" Sora inquires.

"Riku is a given, I don't even need to bring him up. Though that's after I spar with the other three," Matthew responds to Sora's question as they walk past the bridge and make their way to a cabin which connects to the bridge thanks to the hidden staircase inside the cabin and the large rock connected to it.

"Then what about me? I want to spar with you too!" Sora replies, glaring at his friend, "Don't tell me you're gonna try to duck and dodge me now."

Sora's tone becomes accusing as he narrows his eyes at Matthew, while Matthew raises his hands in a placating manner.

"Nothing like that Sora. I'm just saving our spar for last," Matthew assures his friend with a small smile.

Seeing this makes Sora grin, completely ready for the their spar later, before he goes rushing off.

"Then let's hurry up and get those items!" Sora calls over his shoulder, Matthew shaking his head with a small smile before rushing after Sora.

As Matthew runs after Sora, he spots someone waving at both him and Sora as they run up to the guy. The aforementioned boy has orange hair styled up in a spiky manner, but held together in an enormous blue coif. His eyes are brown and he has small stud earrings. The boy is also wearing his yellow baggy pants that close up halfway down his lower legs. Each leg of these pants have a large, gray, "X" -shaped strap with blue tips. He also wears a pale yellow tank top with black lining. Green sandals on his feet and blue wrist bands attached to his wrists finish the outfit. The boy is currently holding a white with blue markings blitzball in his right hand.

"What's happening man?" The boy greets both Sora and Matthew with a smile as Sora and Matthew stopped in front of him.

Sora smiles widely back at the boy as he emits a chuckle, while Matthew gives a small smile back to him.

"Nothing much, Wakka, just collecting stuff for the raft. Riku and Kairi got me to come along to help Sora with it," Matthew told the boy.

At this, Wakka winds up chuckling. This ends up making Sora narrow his eyes and Matthew begins to look confused.

"What's so funny? Huh?" Sora asks, upset at Wakka's chuckling, and obviously missing the joke.

"N-Nothing much, man. But you h-have to admit. It's not so smart to leave you two in charge of supply gathering, man," Wakka answers Sora, while trying to calm down his own laughter.

"What's that supposed to mean? We can handle it! Either of us could handle it on our own even!" Sora protests, feeling insulted while Matthew internally agrees, but says nothing.

Deciding to see how this plays out for now, Matthew merely waits to see what is said from there.

"Please! I know for a fact you don't send a boy who takes afternoon naps during the day," Wakka accuses Sora.

This responses causes Sora to look sheepish at the claim and unable to defend against the claim, seeing as it is true. Matthew turns his head to hide a smirk. He has to admit, Wakka definitely got Sora there.

"Or a boy who daydreams, to gather supplies as a task," Wakka finishes, making Matthew keep his head turned, not to smirk anymore, but now looking sheepish too.

As with Sora, Matthew knows Wakka has him there, but he is mostly a serious person about any task he is given.

"Riku would've been a smarter choice since he would take it seriously."

"Hey! I can be serious!" Both Matthew and Sora respond at the same time.

Once again, this causes Wakka to chuckle again at the two.

"Y-You two really think you can handle this? Well, I suppose maybe Matthew could, but are you sure you won't take a nap again, Sora?" Wakka teases Sora some more, making him narrow his eyes.

"That's enough, Wakka. Sora's every bit as capable as Riku or myself," Matthew speaks seriously with narrowed eyes and a slightly angered tone.

His annoyance is rising now, but just barely noticeable. He knows it is just playful teasing, but Wakka and Tidus are known to sometimes say things without thinking them too much. True, they mean no harm by it, but it doesn't make their words less annoying to put up with. Matthew doesn't like anyone insulting his friends. True, Sora takes naps at times, but he knows Sora is a reliable friend when he's needed. Sora looks at Matthew, thankful for his trust, before narrowing his own eyes at Wakka as an idea forms in the boy's mind.

"Then how about this? I'll go and find the supplies alone, while Matthew spars with you. If I can finish and make it back with Kairi before you two finish sparing, then you have to admit I am capable of doing my tasks seriously," Sora challenges Wakka, who looks like he is thinking it over.

"What do I get if I win?" Wakka asks, wondering what he would get and if it was worth it.

Though sparing with Matthew sound like a tempting idea, he wanted to see what he could get out of this challenge.

"Then you get to have Matthew or myself help you out with whatever you want for a week," Sora replies, making Matthew glare at Sora in annoyance.

Why did Sora just offer him up without asking first?

"Don't I get a say in this?" Matthew asks, hoping to get Sora to listen to reason without any arguments, but both Wakka and Sora looked at Matthew in deadpan.

"No," They both answer him, making Matthew's eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

Not minding Matthew's annoyed look, Wakka shakes Sora's hand, "It's a deal, best get a move on man! If you can actually collect your supplies that is!"

Wakka finishes his sentence, before turning quickly and throwing his blitzball at Matthew. Immediately, the boy responds by dodge-rolling off to the side. Readying his wooden sword as he springs to his feet from the roll.

"I'll be finished soon, Matt! Just enjoy the sparring match!" Sora calls out, running off up a wooden pathway leading to the big treehouse.

Matthew just looks at Sora in annoyance, before feeling a blitzball slam into the back of his head and bounce off it back to Wakka. Matthew looks behind him to see Wakka pick it up from the ground.

"Keep your eyes on the action, man!" Wakka calls out to Matthew challengingly, before smirking, "Though I hope you're not gonna cry when you lose!"

Wakka grins then, jumping up and priming his arms for a two handed throw, "Eat this!" he shouts, throwing the ball fast with both arms.

Matthew eyes widened at it's speed, as he swung at it horizontally like a baseball bat. Hitting the ball with his wooden sword, and launching it back at a surprised Wakka, Matthew watched as the ball made contact.

"AGH!" Wakka yells loudly, holding his blitzball where it hits him.

Unfortunately for him, and to Matthew's shock and embarrassment, it hits him right in the nuts. Wakka looks at Matthew with a mixed expression of hurt, agony, and anger. Matthew watches in sympathy and guilt as Wakka rolled on the ground trying to ride out the pain.

"Why? Why did you...do this...to me?" Wakka groans out as he tries to endure the hell he has been inflicted with.

Sure, he may have been rude with the crying comment, but it cannot be worthy enough to punish him like this...right?

"I got the cloth! Keep him busy, Matt!" Sora calls from above, jumping from the balcony-walkway attached to the treehouse to the ground.

This comes before he finds himself climbing up a different ladder to a new walkway, Matthew watching all of this with an embarrassed chuckle.

 _'I don't think keeping him busy will be difficult,'_ Matthew thinks to himself as Wakka slowly got up, wincing a little as he tried to shake off the pain.

"Sorry, Wakka. I really didn't mean to hit you there. Can you forgive me?" Matthew inquires nervously, feeling guilty about the unexpected hit.

Wakka just glares at him for a few seconds before slowly rising and grumbling something under his breath, "Yeah, man, but if you hit me there again..." he trails off and leaves the threat hanging there with a look that promised pain.

Matthew nods in understanding, knowing all too well that no guy likes getting hit there.

"Now le-" Wakka begins, only to get cut off by someone he isn't expecting...

"I got the rope, Matt! Just one more log and we win!" Sora calls out, racing off past them.

Matthew and Wakka end up looking at Sora, before looking at each other. Wakka, thinking quick, throws a ball at Matthew, who jumps to the side and leans his body to the right to avoid the blow. Once he lands from his sudden jump to avoid the ball, Matthew rushes forward to hit Wakka with his wooden sword. He ends up gaining a glancing blow on Wakka's right arm as he spins around Matthew's strike and runs for the ball. Matthew, seeing this, quickly spins on his left heel like a top to face Wakka before launching himself in a thrust that catches Wakka in the back. The blow makes Wakka grunt in pain before putting both his hands on the sand near his ball. He proceeds to duck low and mule kick Matthew in the gut. This only results in Wakka earning a hit on his leg as Matthew's attempt to follow up hits his right leg instead of his back.

 _'I hate to admit, but I think Matthew's gotten stronger since last time I seen him. He never hit that hard before...'_ Wakka thinks quickly while rolling to his feet with his ball now in hand.

Deciding to end this fast, he jumps up and is ready to use his full strength in this throw.

"Eat this!" Wakka shouts as a blue light surrounds the blitzball while he throws it at a surprised Matthew.

Matthew, seeing it coming faster then normal again, swung his wooden sword down vertically on instinct to intercept it. Thankfully hitting it back at the again-surprised Wakka as it hits him in the gut as he was falling.

"Gah...That hurt," Wakka groans, rubbing his stomach, before glaring at Matthew who looks slightly surprised at what happened.

 _'That was close...'_ Matthew thinks, waiting for Wakka to throw the ball again. That way he could have time to counter if Wakka threw it fast again, _'I need to be more careful if I'm gonna avoid anymore of that fast ball attack...'_ Matthew determines, seeing Wakka ready to throw the ball.

"Hey guys! I did it!" Sora calls out from the distance, grabbing Wakka's and Matthew's attention.

They both look over, seeing Sora run up to them with Kairi in hand. Matthew cannot help sighing to himself in exasperation at the annoyed look on Kairi's face. Knowing Sora, he most likely talked her into it when she didn't want anything to do with this bet of his. He is relieved to see Kairi and Sora holding all the supplies though.

"I got all the stuff back to Kairi for our raft as agreed, Wakka! One rope, one cloth, and two logs!" Sora cheers proudly with Kairi nodding in agreement.

This ends up making Wakka look at Sora shocked, before looking at Kairi in hopes to salvage a win somehow.

"You mean to tell me he only needed four things?" Wakka inquires to Kairi, but keeps his eye on Matthew while waiting for him to drop his guard.

"Yup, Sora got them all Wakka. Sorry to hear about your bet, but you should have asked what was on the list first before agreeing. At least then you would've known how fast Sora could get them," Kairi explains, making Wakka tilt his head down in embarrassment, before seeing Matthew's guard down as he turned his attention to Sora with a small smile.

 _'Got you now...'_ Wakka thinks, quickly turning to face Matthew and throwing the ball toward his head.

Only the boy sees it coming from the corner of his eye, before jumping to the side and swinging his wooden sword. Once again, hitting the blitzball like a baseball again and knocking it back at Wakka. Wakka only has time to widen his eyes before it hit his face. This makes him groan in pain from the impact as his ball falls to his feet. Kairi and Sora both wincing at the hit, while Matthew is feeling sorry for Wakka now.

Yes, Wakka uses a blitzball as his weapon of choice, oddly, but no one wants to get hit by their own ball...or weapon...at all.

"Agh! Man...That...hurt..." Wakka complains, dazed after the ball hit his head.

Matthew now has a sweat drop on the back of his head as he sees Wakka holding his face in pain. Matthew decides to end this spar for good and runs forward, hitting Wakka with a vertical strike on his right shoulder. He then proceeds to begin thrusting at his stomach to make him stumble back to catch his breath, and then spinning around with a two handed slash. This ends up connecting his wooden sword with his ribs to knock Wakka back on the ground. Wakka gets up and spins around, trying to hit Matthew as he gets close again, but Matthew stops himself and jumps back, just barely avoiding Wakka's spin. Wakka tries to throw his blitzball at him point blank, but Matthew dodge-rolls away. Only to notice Wakka grabbing his sword arm and his wooden sword in an attempt to pry his sword loose. Matthew responds by kneeing Wakka in the gut three times, before Wakka stumbles back. A mistake Wakka regrets as Matthew kicks him back and away from him with a kick to his chest. Not wanting to lose the spar, Wakka decides to put distance between them. Quickly he finds himself running to the ball and picking it up, while rolling his shoulder slightly.

 _'I need to end this now, yeah...Can't take much more hits from him...'_ Wakka thinks seriously with narrowed eyes.

Wincing a bit from the pain he felt in Matthew's attacks so far, Wakka begins winding up his arm to use his two handed throw. Sure, he knows Matthew knocked it back before, but it is his strongest attack with his blitzball. If he can get him at just the right timing, he knows it will probably knock the wind out of Matthew if it hits the right spot... Seeing Matthew rushing in to finish the fight, Wakka knows it is time to use his ace in one final gamble.

"Eat this!" Wakka shouts as he jumps up, throwing the ball at Matthew.

Thinking that with Matthew rushing, he would have a hard time countering his attack this time, but Wakka soon realizes this isn't so. Matthew, reacting on instinct, swings his sword downward. This ends up slashing at the ball and knocking the ball back toward a once more surprised Wakka. The ball is soon slamming into his gut again and making him stumble from the blow knocking the wind out of him. Wakka is now wincing and grunting in pain as he stands on shaky legs.

"Agh! Not...again..." Wakka grumbles, trying to shake off the pain, but Matthew doesn't want to give him that chance.

Quickly rushing up with a strike to the left shoulder, a thrust to the gut, and a spin slash to the gut, Matthew again ends up knocking Wakka back.

"Gah...Enough." Wakka speaks up, making Matthew pause in worry and wariness as he watches Wakka raise his hand while shaking his head as he looks at Matthew while panting slightly, "I... I give. You win, Matt."

Wakka concedes, as Matthew nods with a frown looking at Wakka with concern. That is, before seeing Wakka pull out a potion and heal himself of any injuries he had.

"Ah! Nothing like a good potion after a hard battle," Wakka chirps, rolling his shoulder happily, before looking at Matthew with a grin, "You've gotten stronger, man! I didn't know you could hit so hard till now." Wakka complements Matthew, who looks a little embarrassed.

Not used to being praised, he has no time to think on it before Wakka wraps an arm over his shoulder.

"You been doing some secret training or something, man?" Wakka asks, wondering how serious the boy's been taking his training.

Not that he minded, but whatever training he's been doing has clearly been working for him. Matthew, not seeing the harm, decides to share what he knows about his training.

"Yeah, but it was mostly on technique with my sword or physical training like push ups and sit ups. I can do a hundred push ups and fifty sit ups," Matthew answers honestly, thusly making Wakka nod his head in understanding.

"That's something, man...Keep up the good work, but how about another spar, Matt?" Wakka asks Matthew, who looks at Wakka a little worried.

"You sure, Wakka? I know the potion healed you, but you know I don't like to hold back," Matthew inquires, concerned, before Wakka waves off his concern.

"Please, you think I'm made of glass or something? I can take it and if you don't keep your guard up. I might beat you this time!" Wakka exclaims with a challenging grin, making Matthew shake his head.

A small smile forming as he grasps his wooden sword and takes his stance again, Matthew soon looks back at Sora and Kairi. They have been watching with Sora grinning and Kairi shaking her head at the boys antics.

"Sora, Kairi, I hope you two don't mind if I start my training with Wakka here. I'll catch up to you two later, if you don't mind," Matthew tells them, hoping they understand.

Sora and Kairi nod, before Kairi gives Matthew a warning glare, "Fine, but you better not get hurt too badly or our parents are gonna flip again!" Kairi exclaims, reminding Matthew of a time he came back injured.

Neither of their parents were happy to say the least and it took a while before they let him spar with his friends again. Once he promised them he would come back just fine and that he would be careful to avoid getting too hurt. A promise he now works real hard to ensure he keeps for both his sake and his friends.

"I know, Kairi. You and Sora go have some fun okay?" Matthew tells them, giving Kairi a small knowing smile that makes Kairi pout at Matthew with a small blush.

She hates when he teases her about her feelings for Sora...!

"Hmph!" Kairi huffs as she walks off, leaving Sora looking at her confused.

"What just happened?" Sora asks Matthew and Wakka, who share a look and a smile; a look that says they know what is going on, but aren't going to tell him.

"Sorry, Sora, but this is one of those things you have to figure out for yourself," Matthew tells Sora with a sympathetic look on his face.

Wakka nods in agreement with Matthew, but smirks at Sora's girl trouble, "He's right, man. There are somethings in life you have to figure out for yourself." Wakka answers Sora, supporting Matthew on the advice.

He wonders if he might win that bet or not against certain friends of his about how long it would take Sora and Kairi to confess to each other...

"Come on guys! Can't you just tell me!" Sora pleads to the two, but mostly to Matthew rather then Wakka.

They're closer friends after all and friends are supposed to help each other. Matthew, seeing the look on Sora's face, decides to throw Sora a bone to help his dense friend figure it out on his own.

"Look, Sora, why don't you just go ask Kairi what's bothering her and how she feels? You might learn something if you just ask her after all," Matthew offers, hoping Sora will get it, but the boy looks hesitant for a moment.

 _'Maybe I need to help those two more then I thought...'_ Matthew thinks, about to offer some advice, before Sora ran off with a determined look in his eyes.

"I'll go ask her then! Maybe if I can find out what's wrong! I can make her happy again!" Sora shouts as he runs off, leaving Matthew smiling at Sora's retreating form.

He really hopes Sora understands and will find out Kairi's feelings this time. He knows Kairi has been trying so hard to tell the boy, but always seems hesitant. Rather if it is because of Riku or not he does not know, but he does know she has strong feelings for Sora at least.

"Good luck, Sora," Matthew murmurs quietly to himself, before turning his attention to Wakka with a challenging smirk.

"Ready for round two, Wakka?" Matthew asks as Wakka gains a determined look on his face.

"You better be ready, man. I won't let you catch me off guard this time!" Wakka calls out, grasping his ball and readying to throw it.

Matthew grins then, rushing straight at him with a readiness to continue his training.

 **:Time Skip:**

Matthew sighed as he finally caught his breath from sparring with Wakka. He had to admit that while deflecting the ball is the easy part, once you're used to how fast he throws it, the guy could tank some damage. However, what surprised him was that after a while, it sort of felt like it got easier to beat him and he hasn't lost to Wakka once. Not to say he was expecting to lose or trying to, but Wakka could throw the ball kind of hard for most kids their age. So beating him five times in a spar without losing once was a little surprising him.

Not impossible or rare, but just not something he was used to.

Not that he was complaining.

Then again, he was getting very use to Wakka's fighting style and he could just be getting stronger like people normally do while training. Still, he decided beating Wakka in a spar five times was enough for a day and that now would be a good time to go look for other opponents. So holding out a hand to his downed opponent, Matthew pulled Wakka to his feet and watched his friend use yet another potion to heal his bumps and bruises.

"Thanks, Matt. You've gotten real good, man," Wakka stated, complementing the boy.

He was surprised how easily Matt not only got use to the speed of his throws and fighting style. But also how Matthew was definitely getting stronger too, the aching bruises he had healed earlier was proof of that.

"You think so? Well, thanks I guess. Good to know my training is paying off," Matthew replied not use to complements about his fighting skill level.

Walking away toward the small dock where he saw a girl sitting down on the wooden dock. Kicking her legs as she watched the ocean before her with a content smile on her face.

The girl had green eyes, white skin, and brown hair styled into one large curl on the back of her head and two more on the sides. She wore an odd yellow dress with overall straps and a pocket on the chest. With sandals as her foot wear and a loose blue beaded bracelet on her left wrist. Seeing her, Matthew sighed as he decided to at least speak with her and see if she was up for training with him. Upon noticing Matthew's presence, the girl looked at him and waved.

"Nice to see you, Matt!" The girl waved as Matthew waved back in a friendly manner.

"Nice to see you too, Selphie. What are you up to today?" Matthew asked the girl calmly.

"Sadly nothing much, as Tidus is busy training by himself and Wakka is waiting for Tidus to be done. So they can go check the secret place and see if they can find anything." Selphie said pouting, not seeing Matthew roll his eyes at her behavior. He knew Selphie hated being left out of things and she can get kinda moody when Tidus and Wakka did that.

"Why can't boys just be more normal and not so stupid...?" Selphie grumbled making Matthew snicker at Selphie's complaint about two certain boys she cares for.

Kairi had that same complaint a few times about a certain dense spiky haired boy...

"I'm afraid that boys and girls just think differently, Selphie," Matthew told her honestly, as he didn't completely understand girls either.

Though thanks to those romantic adventure books he swore Kairi to secrecy about, he had a pretty good idea. He knew what to avoid doing in order to not make them angry and, most importantly, some ideas on how to keep them happy. Maybe not to the level to say he is perfect, but he wasn't too ignorant either. He just hopes it helps when he finds a girl to fall in love with. Selphie just rolled her eyes at Matthew's comment before glancing at the wooden sword he brought. A small smile on her lips that Matthew caught and shook his head with a small smile. He knew exactly what she wanted and was glad she seemed up for a spar after all.

"Feel like having a spar?" Matthew asked already knowing the answer as Selphie grinned at him eagerly.

"You bet! Just don't go easy on me or you'll regret it!" Selphie told him as she raced toward the sparring spot on the beach.

Matthew followed close behind as he noticed Sora sparring with Riku on the island...and Sora fell off the island trying to nail Riku with a slash from midair.

 _'When is Sora going to learn you have to be aware of your surroundings?'_ Matthew thought, knowing Sora falling off that island when sparring with Riku has happened before.

He didn't know why Sora constantly fights Riku there when Sora complained it was too small of a fighting ring for his taste. Especially since Matthew knew Riku clearly chose that part of the island on purpose to suit his fighting style after becoming the strongest on the islands.

"Matt! Quit daydreaming and get over here already!" Selphie shouted at Matthew from her spot on their makeshift ring on the beach.

Matthew chuckled realizing his slip up and made his way to his spot. Settling into his stance again as he smiled apologetically at her impatient glare.

"You shouldn't keep a lady waiting, Matt!" Selphie scolded him with a frown and hands on her hips.

Her jump rope of a weapon firmly in her grasp as he took a look at it. As expected it had red handles and beige colored rope. He never knew why she used that as a weapon of choice, but she just said it felt natural in a way.

"Sorry, you ready to spar now?" Matthew asked, as she scoffed at his reply.

Leave it to Matthew to be caught up in his own daydreams or thoughts at practically any time of day or night. Sometimes she wondered if he would remember to keep his head on his shoulders if it wasn't naturally attached to him.

"Better not hold back!" Selphie shouted before Matthew decided to honor her request and rush her with his sword ready to deflect the rope and attack when needed.

He learned that when sparing that keeping your guard up, even when on the attack, would be a good way to avoid taking too much damage. As expected Selphie tried to whip out her jump rope and Matthew dodge rolled under it to get into a crouch in front of her. This ended up surprising Selphie just as Matthew lunged forward with a stab, making her step back a bit in pain and Matthew followed up with an overhead slash to her right shoulder. Hoping to make her attacks slower, he spun in a circle catching her in the ribs. Selphie grunted in pain before raising her head to see Matthew coming at her quickly and jumped back an impressive distance.

"Here I come!" Selphie shouted as she spun the jump rope around her, fully believing this method would protect her from his attacks.

Matthew only frowned at seeing this trick and lunged forward to knock the red handle aside. Only for Selphie to unexpectedly start spinning with her jump rope as she was caught off guard by the force of his attack. Even Matthew looked at her in surprise that she was spun around like that from a simple hit.

"Ugh...When did you get so strong?" Selphie asked, trying to stand on her feet despite feeling dizzy from the unexpected force Matthew put in his attack.

"I…guess my training is more effective than I thought?" Matthew told her as he was wondering himself how much stronger he has gotten.  
Yeah he could pack a punch before, but to send Selphie spinning was new to him. This day was getting kind of weird, but at least he seems to be getting stronger now!

"Well, don't think you got me beat yet!" Selphie shouted as she finally had her vision righted again and lashed out with a jump two feet from him.

Her jump rope smacking into his head as Matthew flinched from the annoyance of it instead of pain. While it didn't do much damage, it was an annoying feeling to get hit with a jump rope to the head. Though he swore she used to hit him harder than that before... Either that training was paying off or that dream might have made him stronger and tougher to hurt. Those thoughts were soon cut off as he felt another annoying sting from the jump rope, only this time it hit his face.

"Agh! Selphie!" Matthew cried out in shock and annoyance.

"Don't start daydreaming or this is going to be a short spar, Matt!" Selphie called out as she tried to jump toward him again with her jump rope lashing out.

Matthew, having enough of getting hit, used an overhead slash to knock it aside. Selphie lost her balance from the force of the blow before cringing in pain from Matthew's three rapid attacks that knocked her back. Matthew not wanting her to have another chance, ran and thrust forward toward her. Only for Selphie to jump back avoiding his attack again, making him frown in frustration. Matthew had to admit she was good at avoiding attacks and understandably so, given she can't take as many hits as Wakka or Tidus could.

"Here I come, Matt!" Selphie shouted rushing toward her sparring partner with her spinning attack toward him.

Matthew only deadpanned at this as he knew Selphie had only three attacks she used with it. A leaping jump, the spinning tactic with her jump rope, and a quick whip like attack. Deflecting these attacks aren't hard and dodging them is easier if timed right. It's just fighting her was predictable and not one he likes to drag out because he feels like a bully if he does. Not to call her weak, but her predictable fighting style and being unable to take too many hits made for short spars between them.

Just as Selphie was about to hit him, Matthew slashed horizontal to knock her spinning. Taking advantage of her loss of balance in her spin, Matthew rushed forward and unleash another overhead slash to her left shoulder this time, a thrust to her gut, and one final horizontal slash that caught her left arm and ribs.

 _'Time to finish this...'_ Matthew thought rushing forward as she regained her bearings, lashing out with a quick whip movement.

Matthew jumped up and slashed an uppercut with his wooden sword to knock it aside. He then ended up bringing it down on her shoulder and immediately spinning horizontally to unleash a slash to her stomach. Landing with a slight slide in Matthew's attempt to regain his balance and stance from his aerial combo, he looked at Selphie who had her hand raised in surrender.

"Oh~ I can't believe I lost!" Selphie whined as she bent over with her hands resting on her knees to catch her breath.

She then found herself digging into her a pouch on her dress for a potion to heal her wounds, sighing in relief as she felt the aches and bruises fade away. Matthew smiled, glad to see that their spar is done and that she was carrying a potion on her. He was almost about to offer his own for a second there, but he supposed this might be best to hang on to. Especially given Sora sometimes doesn't have a potion on him during his own spars and he might need it to heal himself after sparing with Sora. Turning his attention again to Selphie, he saw her smiling at him eagerly like a child got a new toy or saw her role model. Matthew had to repress the urge to chuckle at how excited she always looked after a good spar or something catches her interest.

"You've gotten really strong, Matt! I bet you could even take on Tidus or maybe all three of us now!" Selphie chirped, excited at the idea of Matthew sparring with all three of them at once.

Just like Riku did at times and Sora is showing potential for it as well! This meant more people they could spar three on one against in the future if things kept going like this. Matthew, however, chuckled with a wary smile on his face at that. He remembered the first time he saw Riku fight all three of them at once and won. It was one of the reasons he looked up to Riku as both a rival and as a big brother of sorts. He was strong and protective of those he cares for. Granted he's more serious than both Sora and himself, but that's what big brothers are naturally like in his mind.

"Spar with me some more? Please?" Selphie begged with her puppy dog eye trick.

Matthew knew she surely must've been taught it by Kairi...he would remember to get her back for that later, she knew how he hated when she used that trick on him!

"Fine, but remember I won't hold back, Selphie," Matthew warned her.

However, judging by the grin on her face, he knew that was what she wanted and she'd settle for nothing less.

"Deal!"

 **:Time Skip:**

"Ow…" Selphie whined as Matthew helped her pick herself up slowly.

He found himself regretting that he may have gone overboard in their fifth spar. Why five spars one may ask? Well, she was adamant about trying to beat him at least once, but now he knew he had to put his foot down. She's clearly had enough and he didn't feel like prolonging their spars any further.

"Selphie, I think you've had enough for now. Get some rest okay?" Matthew asked concerned for Kairi's friend and was kind of his friend too.

It was hard to tell with her, but he knew she means well.

"Yeah, I think I'll do that. So can we do the three on one with you sometime later?" Selphie asked wanting to have some fun sparring with Tidus and Wakka as a team again.

For some reason she enjoyed spending time with them, even though they were kind of stupid at times. They were her best friends and she enjoyed every minute she had with them.

"Sure, maybe later though, but for now I'm going to find Tidus for a spar," Matthew told Selphie as he made his way toward where he knew Tidus was training.

He could hear Selphie wishing him good luck from the distance, so he gave her a small wave over his shoulder in response.

 **This marks the end of the first chapter! Dang, I didn't expect this to take as long as it did, but this is the way I like showing Matthew's training with Selphie and Wakka. Tidus will come soon and so will the three vs one bit. Regardless, I hope you like this chapter and enjoy the next one when it's ready.**

 **Until then, please review and NO FLAMES! I'll accept criticism that is meant to help me grow as a writer or ideas, but not hating for something like my OC's. Especially no hating on OC's falling for cannon characters in any series!**

 **For those of you who accept this, thank you and please stay open minded. The world needs more people like you and I look forward to what you think of my future chapters!**


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